And he is out of his fucking skull if he thinks either the Republicans or the Very Serious People are going to give him credit for this. All they will do is say this is a good start, and then demand even more. Oops, we find that this isn’t even called a good start, but only a token one.

Is there anyone at the White House who has ever negotiated for anything? I can understand bargaining this away (I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I get it), but he gave this away for free. No concessions by Republicans, nothing.

Maybe Obama just doesn’t care about jobs or wages, since it’s hard to believe that he can be this stupid.

The idea that Obama appears to negotiate against himself because he’s naive about his opponents is increasingly dubious. It’s much more likely at this point that he simply believes in what he’s doing and gets the outcome he desires. He’s a right-of-center Democrat who supports right-of-center policies.

I don’t think he can face up to the fact that he seriously goofed both with the stimulus and in his methods for dealing with Congress—and I don’t think it’s the Republicans he’s surrendering to, it’s some Republicans, Snowe, Collins, Brown, and now Kirk plus the conservative Democrats. He needs those 60 votes. But he needs them because he’s never come up with any plan by which he wouldn’t need them. And I think he’s never come up with a plan because he’s convinced his original schemes will work, eventually. Vanity.